Phases of Reality
by Ajrui
Summary: A vivid and emotional collection of stories, drabbles, and poems by various authors of the LiveJournal community. Leah, Blackwater and WolfPack-centric. *I own none of these stories! Slight edits by I. Rated M for lemons and limes.
1. Deserving

**Deserving  
><strong>A Blackwater Fanfiction

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><p><strong>Summary<strong>: She didn't deserve him and he didn't deserve to be hurt constantly. But that didn't stop him from hurting her, too. Mentions of Jacob/Bella and unrequited Jacob/Leah with a small dash of Sam/Leah. Rated T for language.

**Disclaimer: **I am not the author any of the following stories. None of the authors are the owner of Twilight. I'm just introducing the best Blackwater stories to fellow fans.

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><p>He's been gone for a few weeks now, but he's still there every time she phases. She's pretty sure he hasn't phased back at all, and she starts to think that that really can't be healthy. He can hear her concern, but he doesn't care. He can only think about her and how she hurt him and what she's doing and when she's going to become one of them and frankly, Leah is sick of it. Eventually, she learns to tune him out. His thoughts running through her head get fuzzy and distort into background noise. So surprise hits her like a ton of bricks at something Embry says late one morning while on patrol.<br>_  
>'You're coming back?'<br>_  
>Her heart gives a little leap, barely noticeable, but enough to confuse her. Jacob is confirming what Embry said and they are too preoccupied with his homecoming to feel her reaction before she phases back. She starts untying her dirty sundress from her leg and fumbles with the knot. <em>You're just happy he's coming back so everyone can go back to normal and stop worrying. <em>Even in her head, it doesn't sound very convincing.

Hours later, she's sitting on Billy's front step, the rest of the pack scattered across his yard, waiting. Brady, Collin, and Seth had gotten bored enough to break out a battered Monopoly game. They'd asked her to join in, but she said she would rather just watch them kick Quil and Jared's asses, and proceeded to bury herself in her thoughts.

When Jacob finally showed up at dusk, covered in dirt, with his hair a greasy, matted mess, she felt a lump form in her throat. He nearly tripped over himself, unused to walking on just two legs, as he made his way over to his father. Hugs were passed around and the air filled with shouts of missing you and don't you ever leave like that again, and then all fell silent. Jacob ducked into the house and reappeared a few minutes later, having sloppily rinsed off most of the dirt and wearing a clean set of clothes. He held his car keys dangling in one hand. Leah gasped as her heart plummeted down into her stomach.

"No," she said, her voice laced with disbelief. "No way. You're not—you can't—you can't _go back to her!_" He didn't say anything, just pressed his lips into a thin line and started to walk towards the garage. She stepped in front of him and shoved him backwards, hot tears welling up in her eyes. "She doesn't deserve you, Jake. She treated you like shit, you can't fucking go _back to her._ You deserve _better_!" The last word hung in the air, speaking everything that went unsaid; you deserve _me_. I deserve _you_. I know what it's like, you need me and I need you. _I need you. _

He looked to the ground, not meeting her eyes. He quietly stepped around her and as she heard the car door shut and the engine start, she felt the tears start to flow over.

"She doesn't deserve him," she mumbled, closing her eyes. "She doesn't."

"You're right." Sam laid a warm hand on her shoulder. "But she's who he wants. She's who he loves. And everyone deserves to be with the person they love."

Her voice was strangled and thick with sobs as she choked her words out. "Everyone but me."

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><p><strong>A note by someone that is not the author, or simply a NTAN: <strong>This fanfiction was written by aldriena(dot)livejournal(dot)com. The direct links to all the storis and drabbles can be located on my profile.

Read and Review!


	2. Strangers in the Wind

**Strangers in the Wind  
><strong>A Blackwater Fanfiction

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><p>Leah fiddles with sticks as she walks along the beach, sand itching at her toes and the leaves fall from the small branches she finds half-buried like hidden treasure between the tiny grains.<p>

She glances up; another itch she can't seem to scratch, no matter how long the stick she grabs to rub down her back when covered in fur. Black's wallowing, drowning in his own river of tears as he's sitting along the shoreline, knees pulled to his chest and calmness crashes over her like the waves that break the mornings of the days.

The sun starts to set; romance picks up in the air and Leah tosses a thin stick from her collection away as she sloppily makes her way towards the shadow of a stranger.

She plops down, "Hey loser," the wind tosses her hair about, his is cut and little stones sit by his feet.

His eyebrows furrow together, a twitch of his lip, and he sighs. "You're getting soft," caresses the wind, sand grains fall against her bare legs and the small waves crash as the day starts to fade.

She shrugs, the wind lifts her shoulders and the twigs dance between her fingers, leaving little dots on the sand, "I know."

Jake offers a tilt of his mouth she refuses to see; she starts drawing in the sand as if she's ten again. Oranges and pinks tint the ocean and Jake's warm hand paints her own.

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><p><strong>NTAN: <strong>The first time I read this I practically came to tears. Read & Review, let's see if I'm just the sappiest of them all.


	3. Till the Morning Light

**'Till the Morning Light  
><strong>A Blackwater Fanfiction

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><p><strong>Mentions of JacobBella, Leah/Sam, and Jacob/Leah. **

****Disclaimer: ****I am not the author any of the following stories. None of the authors are the owner of Twilight. I'm just introducing the best Blackwater stories to fellow fans.

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><p>Chocolate brown eyes. <em>Her eyes<em>, she likes to think, because she's only ever seen that softness in them when he's with _her_-not even that bloodsucker's idiot.

Shaggy black hair. It's always a touch shaggier since he overheard her thinking about how guys with long hair are her weakness.

Skin the color of her favorite, fluffiest towel at home-the one she's had since she was four and a half and that she only uses when she's lonely _(or when she wants him around-she uses it a lot more now)_.

A cocky grin—it's a grin that always pisses her off. It makes her feel like he's keeping something from her-like a cruel piece of gossip or a thought of hers he wasn't supposed to hear.

Lips, round and pink and almost too full. They're the reason she fell for him in the first place-she wasn't able to look at them without imagining herself all over them, tracing them with her lips and fingers and tongue, whispering words that he could taste. She's already kissed them now, though-plenty of times, in the way that can make a girl fall in love or lust or something in between. Those lips really are almost too full. Almost.

Of course, she isn't really in love. Teenagers don't fall in love—she's said that since Day One _(Day Two, she corrects herself—The Day After Sam)_. Teenagers just get attached _(They really aren't teenagers anymore, she thinks. This quirk in their genes has made them much, much more.)_.

Sometimes, she thinks she's just second best and maybe he is too. She's second best to Bella fucking Cullen-the one who changed everything.

She knows when he thinks about _her_, whether they're wolves or not—he gets this sadness in his eyes that she just can't describe. He looks so hurt, so vulnerable. Those are the times she pulls him closer to her and holds him, planting light kisses all over his face and begging his old vitality to bloom again, to resurface. Sometimes it does.

No one knows it, but she takes pride her ability to comfort him in a way no one else can. It makes her feel important, hell, even useful. It's like he's _her _Jacob, and no one else's. Plus, she never really liked sharing anyway. Bella has a power over him like she's a hammer and he's a piece of glass—she can always break him. Leah's different—like superglue. She's always there to fix him.

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><p><strong>NTAN: <strong>Original post and author linked on my profile.  
>SN: I'm getting really tired of the angsty and not really Blackwater fanfics, man.<p>

Sorry for not updating as soon as I said I would. Exams and stuff, y'know? Plus, I'm working on my own Leah-fanfic, that's more about her finding who she truly is than finding a romantic partner. R&R!


	4. NTAN

**NTAN: **Hey, if you can favorite the story then you can review. Just saying, guys. Like, two words and a not so meaningful "How stunning" can make a gals day.


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